Food loaves come in a variety of shapes (round, square, rectangular, oval, etc.), cross-sections, and lengths. Such loaves are made from various comestibles, such as meat, cheese, etc. Most loaves are provided to an intermediate processor who slices and packages the products in groups for retail.
A variety of machines have been developed to slice such loaves. Such machines include the FX180™ or the FX Plus™ slicing machines available from Formax, Inc., of Mokena, Ill., USA. The FX180™ and the FX Plus™ machines are high speed food loaf slicing machines that slice one, two, or more food loaves simultaneously using one cyclically driven slicing blade. Independent loaf feed drives are provided so that slices cut from one loaf may vary in thickness from slices cut from the other loaf. The machines include a slicing station that is enclosed by a housing, except for a limited slicing opening. The slicing blade is disposed in the slicing station and a drive rotates the slicing blade at a predetermined cyclical rate on a cutting path through a slicing range that intersects the food loaves as they are fed into the slicing station.
In the foregoing machines, the food loaf slices are received in groups of predetermined weight on a receiving conveyor that is disposed adjacent the slicing blade. The receiving conveyor receives the slices as they are cut by the slicing blade. In many instances, neatly aligned stacked groups are preferred and, as such, the sliced product is stacked on the receiving conveyor before being transferred from the machine. In other instances, the groups are shingled so that a purchaser can see a part of every slice through a transparent package. In these other instances, conveyor belts of the receiving conveyor are gradually moved during the slicing process to separate the slices.
Paper interleaving mechanisms used in conjunction with cutting machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,752,056 and 4,583,435. According to these patents, slabs of product such as cheese are oriented angularly with respect to a horizontal conveyor and are fed downwardly into a slicing plane defined by a moving slicing blade. A roll of web material such as paper is arranged beneath the slab and has a length of web continuously fed toward and beneath a cut face of the slab such that when the cutting blade slices a slice from the slab the cutting blade simultaneously slices off a leading end portion of the web, forming a sheet. The sheet with the overlying slice fall to the conveyor or onto a previously cut slice already deposited onto the conveyor to form a stack. The web is continuously fed such that successive sheets are interleaved with successive cut slices.
Both of these patents described the use of air jets to assist in coupling the lead end portion of the web to the front face of the slice to be cut. Both of the patents incorporate driven rollers to dispense the web from a roll of web material.
The present inventors have recognized that it would be desirable to improve the reliability of the placement of sheets for interleaving with product slices, particularly for high-speed slicing operations.